


Look towards the brighter side (and I will smile)

by Confettibites



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28046058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Confettibites/pseuds/Confettibites
Summary: The kids come up with a plan of getting Steve and Billy to become friends for "altruistic reasons". What could go wrong?
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41
Collections: Harringrove Holiday Exchange 2020





	Look towards the brighter side (and I will smile)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> First of all, merry Christmas to everyone reading this and especially to @StevesKhakis who this fic is for. It turned out a bit longer but I hope it fits what you had in mind.
> 
> For plot reasons I basically ignored most S3 events so basically all upside down related things and also certain character deaths and the everything Starcourt. In this fic the mall would have closed for some mundane reason and now, I hope you enjoy. :)

Max slammed the door of the Camaro shut and strutted towards where Dustin and Will were already sitting in the parking lot in front of the Arcade. She dropped her skateboard on the ground, flipped off her brother when he made the motor howl while driving away before she sat down next to them with a sigh and a roll of her eyes.

“Could that guy get any douchier?”, Dustin asked.

“I won’t challenge him,” Max said. “It’s getting worse every day anyway.”

“Do you think he’s maybe going through something?”, Will asked.

“Like what? Not finding anyone to harass?”, Dustin said.

Instead of a reply, Will looked to the ground between his feet and shrugged.

“I mean, to feel lonely he must have some degree of human emotion”. Max snorted and shook her head.

“Something, that dude still owes us proof of.”

“Where’s Lucas?”, Max then asked after a moment of silence.

“Has to walk here. I tried to call Steve earlier but no reply. Again.”

“Maybe you should try to annoy him less often.”

“How am I annoying?”, Dustin asked, affronted.

“Just saying.” Max held her hands in defense.

“Speaking off…” Will mumbled and they all raised their heads, seeing Lucas on the other side of the street. He was carrying some sort of leaflet in his hand and waving to them as he came closer.

When Lucas reached them, he let out an exhausted sigh and looked at Dustin with a stern face. “What the hell is going on with Steve?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re like, kind of the closest to him?”

“Doesn’t mean the guy is telling me any more than he is to all of you.” Dustin got a little louder explaining.

“All I am saying is, this is not gonna work long-term and my bike is still not fixed.” Lucas huffed. “Plus this.” With that, he put a little green leaflet onto the ground in the middle of them that read SUMMER FAIR describing delicious food, joyous rides, and certainly like the place to be. And it was happening only a few weeks from now.

“We can’t take our bikes there. Mom would never…” Will pointed out looking how the event was quite a bit away from them.

“Yeah,” Dustin said. “And it’s definitely not the kind of thing to bring parents to either.”

“Yeah, no way!”, Lucas agreed.

“I could try to ask Steve?”

“No way Neil would allow that,” Max said, shaking her head with a stern face.

“So, you’ll ask that douchebag.”

“You are aware that either of those doesn’t seem to particularly like giving us rides, are you? That's like the whole issue here”, Max rolled her eyes. “Maybe we just face the facts that we won’t get to go there.”

“Wait a minute…”, Dustin mumbled.

“What’s that face?”, Max asked, looking at Will after Dustin kept quiet for a moment.

“Idea face.”

“Definitely idea-face,” Lucas agreed.

“Okay Henderson, spit it out.”

“So, Billy’s been an asshole but maybe it is because he's bored or lonely or something and Steve has been complaining all summer as well.”

“So what are you getting at?”

“Maybe, if those two became friends, that would be like… beneficial for us.”

“And them?”, Will frowned.

“Yeah, of course, them. This is like… altruistic of us or something. Come on, they both could use a real friend and if that in exchange helps us go to the fair, I'd say, we should go for it.”

“Don’t you think it’s a… bad idea?”

“I mean, Billy is an douchebag but Steve doesn’t really have that many options to choose from right now. He isn’t even spending that much time with Robin anymore.”

“I mean…” Max frowned.

“Let’s just figure out a plan, yeah?”

_______________________________

Steve has been sitting on his ass dozing off for at least four hours now. Robin was supposed to come in in the early afternoon because she had something to do this morning. He has no idea why they would want two people in here with how little customers they’d been having this summer but he wasn’t going to complain about the company.  
Familiar voices caught his attention soon enough though.

“This is never gonna work!”, he heard Max say under her breath.

“Just follow my lead, okay?”

“What’s going on with you two?”, Steve asked, getting both Max’s and Dustin’s attention immediately. He wasn’t sure if he could see a blush forming on Max’s face but then, Dustin came up to him.

“Steve, my man!”

“Henderson,” Steve put on a smile. Immediately after, Will and Lucas also made their way inside, looking a bit suspicious. Steve has long stopped caring about them trying to get him to rent them horror movies but if they wanted to be sneaky about it, he wasn’t going to ruin their day. “What are you guys up to?”

“You have your day off tomorrow, right?”

“Uh… yeah? Why?”

“Actually, Will’s been meaning to ask if we could go to the pool.”

Steve looked at Will, whose face started to light up bright red. The boy gave a shy nod.

“O-kay? Can’t your parents take you?”

They all quickly gave a bunch of excuses from work obligations to weird appointments.

“So, can you?”

“I mean, I guess? You wanna go early?”

Dustin looked at Max who gave a quick nod.

“Yeah, early works.”

“Fine. Great. I guess I’ll pick you up tomorrow then.”

Steve isn’t half-mad about it because if he’s totally honest, it’s been a while since he left his house on an off-work day.

_______________________________

Immediately after wandering outside in his bathing shorts and a t-shirt, sunglasses on, Steve was reminded why he had been avoiding the pool for forever. Hargrove was strutting in front of a row of barely dressed housewives, putting on a nasty smirk when he caught eyes on Steve. Steve tried to keep his cool, ignoring the obnoxiousness as well as he could.  
The kids had immediately beelined towards the pool so instead of standing there like an idiot, Steve made his way towards the more shadowy parts of the area. He wasn’t into sporting a sunburn for the rest of summer. Even if that meant, passing Billy as he did whatever part of a pool guard job he was currently doing. Steve was sure, the certainly too tight trunks weren’t part of the job description either. Hargrove had probably flirted his way into this position anyway because no way this guy was caring about anyone’s safety.

“If that isn’t King Steve. What a rare sight these days,” Billy commented after Steve thought he had already successfully passed him.

With a sigh, Steve stopped his tracks and turned around, pushing his sunglasses down a bit to face him.

“Hargrove,” he just mumbled, trying to keep a level of formality.

“Max here, too?”

“Yeah, over there with the others.”

Billy frowned for a moment but didn’t lose his posture.

“Your mom said she could come.”

“Her mom,” Billy mumbled, and just as that, he walked away and left Steve standing there like an idiot.

It was kind of a nice morning, even though Steve thought, he’d surely be bored as fuck out here. He was just laying on a blanket, avoiding the bright sunlight, dozing off, enjoying the fresh air and the warm breeze of his skin. After about an hour, the kids came back to take a break from the water and eat some of the snacks they bought.

Seeing Max, Steve remembered the scene with Billy earlier. “Hey Max, so is Billy like… adopted?”

“What?” Max looked at him like he had absolutely lost his mind.

“He said something about your mom not being his?”

“Oh, yeah. My mom married his dad when I was still a baby.”

“Oh! Yeah, okay, that makes sense.”

“Why do you care?”

“Just curious, I guess. He just mentioned something earlier and I had no idea.”

Steve didn’t miss the suspicious smile on Dustin’s face but didn’t care to stick his head into any of their shenanigans.

_______________________________

Strangely enough, the following week, Steve saw Billy more often than ever before and it was always about something involving the kids. Dustin strangely asking him to take him grocery shopping because his mom had apparently had a little accident and couldn’t go lead to walking right into Billy and Max about to do the same task. When Steve wasn’t taking them to the pool, Max showed up with Billy in family video.

The weirdest occurrence of them all was Friday. Dustin called him already pretty late asking for ‘one last favor, Steve, please, you know how my mom still can’t drive with her leg’. So Steve agreed to take him to the movie theater where most of the other kids had already arrived. Lucas gave tickets to all of them and Steve frowned when he read his.

“Hey, didn’t you say you wanted to see back to the future?”, Steve asked Dustin.

“Uh, yeah but you said you’ve seen that one before.”

“So, what? I’m supposed to see some trashy horror movie on my own?” Steve huffed.

“No,” Dustin explained, shaking his head. “Max will get here in a second and she’s taking Billy. He doesn’t want to see back to the future either.”

“Yeah, the answer is no. No way, that is gonna happen. You can’t be serious!” Steve ran his hand through his hair, breathing out loudly.

“Harrington. What got your panties in a twitch?”

“Don’t be so gross!”, Max shoved against Billy’s side.

“Don’t be a bitch or I’m gonna take your sorry ass right back home,” Billy threatened.

“Come on, dude.”

Billy raised his eyes to Steve and for whatever reason, spared the snarky remark he’d clearly already thought of. The kids’ movie started fifteen minutes earlier than theirs and not long after they all arrived, it was only Billy and Steve left.

“How come, I’m always running into you lately, Harrington?”, Billy mumbled as they made their way to get popcorn.

“I’m just the driver. No idea what these kids are even up to.”

Billy hummed at the reply and ended up getting both of them popcorn and coke so they could make it in time to the start of their film.

They were sitting pretty secluded in the back row with at least half a dozen empty seats between them and the next guests. Clearly, the movie was trash, and not that many people had shown up with interest to see it. Steve lost the plot completely after about ten minutes when the second girl died under strange circumstances. When he looked over at Billy, that guy was clearly not paying any attention either, frowning and reaching into the pockets of his jeans.

“What the fuck are you doing?”, Steve asked, because Billy had been ruffling with his clothes for what felt like the last minute.

Billy’s hand came finally up with a pack of Malboros. “Don’t know about you but this sucks and I’m heading for a smoke.” With that, the dude was standing up and pushing himself past the others sitting in their row.

Steve watched him leave for a moment, finally managing to take his eyes off the guy’s backside to follow him. It was never a good idea to leave Hargrove out of your eyes after all.

“Didn’t think you’d come,” Billy huffed when Steve caught up to him in front of the theater.

“The movie is pretty shitty.”

“What do you think? Why’re the shitheads trying to get rid of us?”

“No idea.”

“Hope, Sinclair isn’t trying to cop a feel or something.”

“Dude, they’re kids. Besides, it’s not like Max wouldn’t just deck him.”

Billy let out a laugh. “That she would,” he grinned. “Whatever. I’m not mad, that I’m not on babysitting duty.”

“Oh, so you’re admitting to enjoying my company?”, Steve teased. For a second he thought that there was a hint of a blush on Hargrove's face but it could be the streetlights. A second later, the dude was already laughing it of. 

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Harrington.” Billy snorted before he pulled out a cigarette, lighting it before giving it to Steve and lighting another one for himself.

They didn’t end up going back to see the end of the movie. Instead, they went through a few cigarettes and sat down on the sidewalk in front of the theater, in silence at first and then talking about this and that.

It was strange how in the quiet of the street and the dim light, Billy seemed more like a normal person to him, like a friend even, than he ever did before. They had to break up their conversation about basketball and how they supposedly ‘played so much better in California, you have no idea, Harrington. Just wait till you see for yourself!’, when the kids all stormed out talking about time travel, DeLoreans, and whether flux capacitors could work. Still, Steve drove the kids home with a smile on his face, thinking about how Billy had looked when he told him about beaches.

_______________________________

Billy has been doing everything Neil had asked him to do which is why it was a little surprising to get caught in a fight that evening. But experience should have taught him that his father didn’t always need a reason.

It was their whole routine. Bookshelf pressed to his back, angry fists forcing the air out of his lungs and screams of disappointment, audacity, responsibility. He'd read the script before, knew all the lines by heart. Billy didn’t cry, didn’t argue, there was no point anyway. He waited, as he had learned on countless evenings like this, for the anger to melt out of his father, for the path to clear, and for him to be able to walk through the door and towards a safety that he knew only existed outside of his home.

The good thing was that Neil spared the face so half an hour after his father had walked through his bedroom door, Billy was driving down a dark road, pressing his hand against the bruised-up part on his ribcage. It didn’t feel like there was a broken one but he didn’t have the time yet to really take a look. Right now, he was only worried about the lack of gas in his car and the lack of a plan on his mind. He really wasn’t into spending the night in his car again, especially when this position already hurt like a bitch.

He didn’t have a clear plan of where he was heading but for some reason, he ended up in a different area of the town, too close to Harrington’s home to call it an accident. Billy bit down on his tongue and felt upon the bruise once more to be reminded that a dumb idea was better than none. So, he put his car into park and walked up the Harrington residence, hoping for once to not ruin things.

Thankfully, it was Steve who opened the door for him. He looked a bit raffled like he had been napping in his clothes, brown hair sticking up all crazy. Billy tried not to smile, mentally fighting the butterflies in his stomach that had the wrong idea about this thing.

“Hey,” Steve finally brought out. “Everything alright.”

“Um…” Billy looked over his shoulder and towards his car like he still had the option to run. “Can you tell me why Max called ten minutes ago, saying she wanted to be picked up from your place?”, he settled on a lie. It was easier than saying that this was the only place Billy thought of and Steve the only person he wanted to see.

Steve looked at him all puzzled. “She’s not here, dude. I’m sorry. No idea, what they’re up to but… I mean, you could still come in and I’ll try to call one of them via walkie-talkie.”

“Sure, that works.” Billy swallowed. Max was home. Probably still wearing headphones to mute out the sounds of things breaking. Of shouting. He was hoping that she missed the worst parts.

It was the first time Billy had ever been in Steve’s home and it was a bit overwhelming, to say the least. Formal. Empty. But lived-in in a way Neil would never allow it to be, with glasses and bottles and little knickknacks standing around, just left there.

“Sorry for the mess. Parents won’t be home for a few weeks so I didn’t bother cleaning up yet.”

“It’s fine, man. What were you up to?”

“Uh, just watching some television I guess? Honestly, I must have been dozing off because I have like no idea what time it is,” Steve nervously ran a hand through his hair.

“I could get out of your hair if you’re tired,” Billy offered.

“No, it’s cool. You can stay. Should I call Dustin to figure out what’s going on?”

“Honestly, I bet it was a prank anyway. No idea what these kids are up to lately.”

“Yeah. It kind of feels like they’re setting us up, right?”, Steve chuckled at that.

The truth was, that idea hadn’t even occurred to Billy yet. He just went with the flow, blaming it on some higher power maybe that he ended up spending more time with Steve lately. The sad truth was that he had a massive crush on the guy pretty much since he stepped foot into this town. But he hated himself a little less for it whenever Steve didn’t look at him in utter dislike which happened more and more often lately.

“You think, they’re following some sort of plan with this?”

“Wouldn’t put it above them,” Steve shrugged. “Wanna watch a movie or something? I’m like starving too, so if you also want pizza, you’re welcome to stay.”

Billy had no idea who to thank for the turn his evening took because one second, he had been put in his place by his dad, and the next he was sitting next to Steve Harrington, shoulder against shoulder, laughing at some dumb comedy and munching down on way too much pizza.

“So, how’s work going?”, Billy asked, so there was no time for an awkward silence to occur or Steve regret inviting him in.

“I’m bored out of my mind most of the time.”

“Really? Thought, you picked that place because of the chick.”

“Robin? I mean, yeah, it’s definitely better with her there.”

“Yeah? You two making out behind the shelves when no-ones there or what?”

Steve choked on his coke. “What? No way!”

“What? She doesn’t look like a prude to me.”

“Still not into me.”

“What did you do? Spending so much time together is like a sure thing or something.”

“First of all, you’re huuugely overestimating my game with girls, and secondly… Believe me. Robin’s not into me. Not into you either, by the way. And that’s not gonna change.”

“Oh, so you’re not her type?”, Billy’s eyes grew a little wider.

“Don’t tell anyone, okay? It’s like… I know I’m not meant to tell anyone.”

“I won’t. Promise.”

Steve started to relax a little after that.

“And that’s like… you don’t have a problem with her… being like that?”, Billy asked again, just trying to make sure.

“What? Why would I?”

“I mean, I know a lot of people who would… be at least weirded out.”

“Are you?”

“No! No. I’m… I’m cool with that.”

“Yeah. Same. I know that she’s been in some trouble with her parents. Must be hard to go through all that.”

“Yeah.”, Billy gave a small nod. “I can imagine.”

They talked for a while, not really paying attention to the movie. Billy knows, he shouldn’t trust feeling so at ease but he was too busy listening to every word leaving Steve’s lips, every quiet moan when he’s biting down on a particularly tasty bit of pizza. Billy tried to save them all in his memory, scared of losing this.

He didn’t plan on staying really. So, when the early morning light hits his face, the TV was nothing more than white noise against his back and there is Steve’s warm body half draped over his side, pushing down on the bruise without hurting too bad, he knew that he had fucked this up. Very carefully, Billy tried to detangle them, but Steve quickly stirred, and blinked his eyes open, turning his face enough to look at him.

“Shit, sorry, should have warned you that I’m like an octopus when I sleep.” And with that, the warmth on Billy’s body was gone and Steve was stretching, his shirt rising up over his belly, revealing a patch of dark hair. Billy swallowed and felt a little warmer than he did just a second ago.

“It’s fine.”

“We never figured out what was going on with your sister, huh?”

Billy didn’t know what brought him to confess his lie then. Maybe it was the softness in Harrington’s eyes or the memory of his touch. He didn’t think before he went: “She didn’t call me.”

“Hm?”

“Shit, listen, I had to get out of the house and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, alright? And sitting in the car hurt like a bitch because…” Billy immediately regretted going there because Steve’s eyes widened when he said hurt and now he kind of has to show him. Billy started to unbutton his shirt and pulled it to the side to expose the big bruise, dark and nasty and pulsating under his skin.

“What the fuck, Billy! Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I’m not… I didn’t want to bother you. I mean… what is this anyway between us? A week ago you were still hating my guts.”

“Did you really think I was gonna kick you out when you’re hurt?”, Steve asked, not sounding pissed but sounding worried. Billy had no idea how to take it. “What happened?” Steve walked up to where Billy was standing with his shirt hanging open and hesitantly placed a hand in the middle of the bruise, right where Neil’s fist met Billy a few hours ago. It didn’t hurt but Billy still flinched and caused Steve to pull back, mumbling a quiet sorry.

Billy swallowed. “T’was my dad.”

“Why?”

Billy exhaled, trying to avoid Steve’s eyes. Not sure what would happen if he didn’t. “Doesn’t need a reason. I’m a failure, a disappointment. A fag.” Billy grimaced at the last word. If Steve didn't turn his back on Robin, there was a small chance, he'd not hate him either, right?

“Billy,” Steve shook his head but he didn’t repulse like Billy thought he would.

“He’s not wrong is the thing.” Billy huffed, forced his mouth into a smile.

“He is.”

“You didn’t listen.”

“Billy.”

Hearing his name again made Billy lift his chin and finally meet Steve’s eyes.

“He’s wrong in hurting you. There’s no reason in the world to justify that. You’re not a failure. You’re not a disappointment.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Still.”

Billy sighed, can’t take his eyes away from Steve’s face. He was everything his father tattooed into his skin and Harrington was wrong. So what was the point in trying to hold it together? Before he could chicken out, Billy did what he’d been wanting to do for forever now and surged forward to quickly, meeting Steve’s lips with his own. If Steve didn’t believe him before, he had to now.

It was still hurting when Steve pulled away with a chuckle. Billy knew what had to follow. Name-calling, solitude. Had been through all this in California when his father found out the first time. It didn’t get easier with time, though.

“You taste like pizza,” Harrington mumbled and Billy felt a spike of fear going up his spine before Steve cupped his face and went for another, sweeter kiss. Harrington was right, the kiss didn’t taste any good, morning breath and all that, but it was still the best thing that had ever happened to Billy. And maybe, maybe Steve could make him believe that not everything his father thought of him was true.

_______________________________

“It worked out, didn’t it?”, Dustin said, clearly trying to brag over a mouthful of corndog.

“Arguably too well,” Lucas said. “I’m not used to Billy being not hostile. Max said, he was even making her pancakes the other day!”

Dustin shrugged. “We got them to be friends and we got a ride so I’d say, this is a win. Steve could use a friend his age so. It all worked out.”

“Friend,” Max commented biting down on a grin. “Yeah, I guess, they both needed a friend.”

She wasn’t going to tell them how she saw Billy and Steve kiss in the car from her bedroom window. Billy didn’t know that she saw her. But the way Steve was looking at him made her happy and most importantly, it seemed to make him happy. And even with how much he acted like a jerk sometimes, she just wanted him to be happy.

After finishing their corndogs, the kids ran over to the next big ride of the fair, laughing and screaming and having the time of their lives.

Billy and Steve were laying on the hood of Steve’s car in the parking lot, where the noise of the fair was a bit duller and even with all the colorful lights in front of them, they could see the stars in the night sky. It took them a while to trust the loneliness of this place and for Steve to reach for Billy’s hand in the dark. But there was no rush, deep down they both knew that this could be a forever sort of thing.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from the song "Tough guy" by Cyberbully Mom Club which I kind of listened to on repeat when finishing up this fic.
> 
> Again, happy holidays to everyone celebrating! Let's hope, 2021 turns out a little bit nicer to all of us!


End file.
